Over the years, NeighborhoodScout® has attracted many real estate investors looking for precise home value trends and forecasts as well as high-level crime, demographic, school quality, and real estate data.

Whether you’re a first-time buyer or an experienced investor, take some time to check out our Real Estate Investor’s Checklist, an easy-to-read guide that summarizes the fundamentals of investing.

What’s in This Guide?

Rather than going into very technical details, we’ve put together a straightforward guide that reads like a checklist. The best investments focus on simple fundamentals, and that’s what this guide is all about.

The eBook covers six key fundamentals that help define a solid real estate investment and some of the most common mistakes to avoid. In short, the Real Estate Investor’s Guide will help you:

• Find the Right Location. No amount of money spent on your property will make up for a bad location. Learn how to find the best locations for your investments by assessing factors like access to high-paying jobs, decent infrastructure, and quality schools, all of which will increase your investment value.

• Understand Evolving Demographics. Nothing can have a larger impact on real estate trends than a major demographic shift. A location’s demographics, including everything from age and gender to migration patterns and population growth, come together to create the special characteristics of a neighborhood. Learn the relevant data and how to analyze it.

• Know the Market. No one can reliably predict the market. However, most are cyclical. Understanding the market cycles will help you avoid a major mistake that can damage your portfolio. Learn the key indicators for each cycle to better understand the market you’re most likely in.

• Analyze the Property. According to HUD’s 2013 American Housing Survey, the average owner-occupied structure is about thirty-seven years old. In other words, there’s always a chance that something is wrong with your property. Flooring, wiring, phone, cable, and lighting are just a few of the 13 big ticket inspection items covered in the guide

• Make a Great Deal. Once you’ve found the right property, it all comes down to your deal-making skills. Learn how to evaluate your potential investment to make sure it generates profit. Specifically, the guide discusses the five key elements to a deal and six key metrics to analyze.

• Manage the Downside. You will make mistakes. From bad tenants or financing to underestimating maintenance costs, all of them have damaged the returns of many investors. Don’t repeat them. As the popular saying goes, “Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”

Download our free “Real Estate Investor’s Checklist” today
and you won’t have to question your investment decisions tomorrow.